


Trust and Truths

by jacquelee



Series: Sam and Jeannie AU [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4062562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe, Rodney McKay and John Sheppard died and Sam works together with Jeannie on her math proof, after Jeannie refused to sign the non-disclosure agreement when Sam asked her to. </p><p>In this universe, Jeannie is not married anymore and raises her daughter herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust and Truths

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge at [Game of Cards](http://gameofcards.livejournal.com)

“I’ll sign it.”

“What?” 

Sam looked up from the equations they had been working on for the last hour with a puzzled expression. 

“The non-disclosure agreement, I’ll sign it.” 

Sam still looked at her with confusion. Jeannie didn’t fault her for that, since for her this must have come completely out of the blue. But she herself had thought about this for a long time and just tried to wait for the right moment to come out with it. And since that moment didn’t seem to want to come, she just said it. Because she was just getting so tired of not knowing, of not having the whole picture, only parts of it. 

“I just want to know what’s really going on here. And I want to know what really happened to my brother. I know it wasn’t an accident.” 

That seemed to take Sam out of her confusion. She rummaged in the papers a little bit, seemingly thinking about what to do, what to say. Jeannie wanted to give her the time she needed to think about this – it was a pretty big revelation since she had been adamant from the beginning of their work together that she would never sign her rights of free speech away, especially not to the military. 

“It was an accident, actually. And I can’t give you an agreement that doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t even know if they would be willing to set another one up, since you had made it clear you didn’t want to work with them. Like I said, they don’t know that I’m working with you, I’m doing this on my own time.” 

“Really?” 

“You think I lied to you?” 

Jeannie was surprised at how hurt Sam sounded. Or maybe not surprised, just… something she didn’t know how to name yet. They looked at each other and she felt what she had felt over the last few weeks, the understanding, the togetherness, something she had never felt with anyone before. 

“No. No I don’t think that, not now. But you didn’t know me then and I understand that you can’t tell me everything without that agreement. That’s why I want to sign it. Because I want to know. And I want to work with you. Really work with you.” 

There, she said it. Now it was up to Sam to make the next step. Again, Sam took some time to think about it, enough time to have Jeannie a little bit worried. What if she didn’t want to work with her? What if she was imagining their connection? But then, Sam took her hand, looking into her eyes. 

“You know you don’t have to do that, right? I’m not going to vanish, there’s still a lot of work to do on this project and there is others. I… I really enjoy coming here, talking to you. Spending time with you. You signing or not signing an agreement won’t change that.” 

Still holding hands and just looking at each other for a few more moments, Jeannie was sure that Sam was genuine. And with that realization, her heart sped up a little bit. She knew they both enjoyed spending time with each other, talking about all the things they had in common, but neither of them had ever said it out loud, maintaining the idea that they were just work partners. 

Now she felt like this could be so much more and that made her feel elated. She laughed a little, a tiny bit nervous about how to proceed. 

“I really enjoy spending time with you too. I’d like to do that more often.” 

“Me too.” 

A few more moments they just sat quietly, enjoying each others’ company. 

“If you still want to know how your brother died, I can show you.” 

“Without the agreement? I thought that wasn’t allowed.” 

“I know you. I know you wouldn't tell anyone about things that I tell you in private.” 

That statement caused Jeannie’s heart to speed up even more. And she realized it was true for her too. They knew each other. 

“No I would never do that. As long as you're not going to tell me something about having murdered someone or something like that.” 

She laughed a little nervously. Of course, she didn't expect this to be the case, that was the whole point, but still. She would never keep a secret when that meant hurting herself or others. That had been the entire point of not signing an agreement she knew nothing about. 

Sam shook her head, being very serious now. 

"You know I wouldn't expect you to keep something like that secret."

For a moment, they looked at each other. Then Jeannie nodded. 

"Yes I do. I don't know how I know, but I do."

They smiled at each other. Then Sam took her laptop. 

“I can log into the database from here and show you the report on Rodney’s death. If you just read about it, it’s probably easier than me trying to explain everything.” 

“Okay.” 

Jeannie braced herself. Even though she had hated her brother for so long, even though she was still convinced that he had been one of the most awful human beings on this planet, he was still her brother and knowing that she would read about his last few moments made her feel a little uneasy. But she did want to know. 

After a few minutes, Sam placed the laptop in front of her. 

“Here, that’s the mission report by Dr. Elisabeth Weir, she was in command when Rodney died. You can read it and then I’ll explain... well, whatever needs explaining.” 

“Okay.” 

Taking a long breath, Jeannie started to read. 

_“Final report on Project Arcturus_

_By Dr. Elisabeth Weir_

_Project Arcturus seemed like a promising project at first, creating a way to extract limitless energy from the vacuum of space. We discovered the remainders of this project on a planet our team explored. Started by Lanteans long ago, in the late days of their war with the Wraiths, it seemed to have been found out by the Wraiths before the Lanteans could get it to work, leaving behind a devastated planet and the bodies of all the Lantean researchers working on the project._

_Dr. Rodney McKay wanted to try and get the project back up and running and giving our dire need for energy right now, I sanctioned it. When Dr. Collins died in the first test of this project however, I pulled the plug and discontinued it, deeming it not worth more lives and thinking that if the Lanteans hadn’t been able to figure out how to safely extract the energy, our team wouldn’t be able to do that either._

_However, Dr. Rodney McKay, with the support of Colonel Caldwell and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard convinced me to give the experiment one more try, trying the equations Dr. McKay came up with, claiming that the Lanteans had been wrong and he was right. I gave him permission to try the experiment one more time, this time only risking the lives of Dr. McKay and Lt. Colonel Sheppard, who took a puddle jumper to the planet on their own and proceeded with the project._

_After they had already started it, Dr. Radek Zelenka realized that the experiment did not fail because the Lanteans were wrong and that also the Wraiths did not kill the researchers, they were killed in the experiment itself and it failed because of the creation of exotic particles as a result of the experiment itself, something that was not predictable and would always lead to the failure of the project._

_Both Dr. Zelenka and I besieged Dr. McKay to stop the test, not wanting to lose either him or Lt. Colonel Sheppard. Dr. McKay convinced me that he would be able to do the test safely and I put my trust in him and his abilities. Sadly that trust was misplaced, as some time later, Colonel Caldwell, who had secretly flown the Daedalus into the planet’s system to monitor the experiment, reported that he contacted Dr. McKay and Lt. Colonel Sheppard on the planet when he registered a spike in energy that seemed to quickly build up to catastrophic levels._

_Realizing his mistake, Dr. McKay tried to make it back to the puddle jumper together with Lt. Colonel Sheppard, but was too late. It is not known if they made it to the puddle jumper or not, as Colonel Caldwell waited as long as he could before jumping to hyperspace because the levels of radiation became dangerously high for his ship’s safety, but both Dr. McKay and Lt. Colonel Sheppard never made it back to the stargate. The planet they were on and nearly the entire solar system it was in exploded as a result. Thankfully both had been uninhabited._

_I am concluding this report with announcing both Dr. Rodney McKay and Lt. Colonel John Sheppard killed in action. They were both huge assets to this expedition and will leave a hole that will be hard to fill.”_

After Jeannie had finished reading, she had to read again, not completely believing what she had just seen. After that she just sat there, trying to digest the implications of this report. Sam just sat next to her, silent, giving her the time she needed to process all of this, which she appreciated. 

“My brother died while blowing up a solar system? A solar system?” 

“Well, more like two thirds of it. And it was uninhabited.” 

Sam gave a little smile, and Jeannie had to laugh a little, still in shock from what she just read. 

“So, spaceships and other planets and all that stuff is real?”

“Yes.” 

“And aliens?”

“Yes.” 

“And you work normally what, in space? On other planets?”

“Yes. Well, both.”

“But you’re not, like, I mean, you’re human? Not that it would matter…” 

Now Sam laughed. 

“Yes, I’m human. Born and raised on Earth, and yes, that is optional.” 

“Okay. I think I have to take a little time to digest this.”

“Of course. And like I said, there is no need for you to commit to anything. As long as you want me here, I will stay, whether you want to work with me or not.” 

“It’s just… Wow. That’s really overwhelming.” 

“I understand that. If you want me to leave…” 

“No! I mean, if you want to…” 

“No. I’m good right here.” 

“Me too.” 

They smiled at each other and despite just having had a massive revelation that turned her entire world upside down, Jeannie felt that it was actually true. She was good. Because Sam was here, with her. And that made everything perfect.


End file.
